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Our next meeting is on Friday 10th April when Professor Steve King (Professor of Economic & Social History, Nottingham Trent University) will give a talk Voices of the Poor and the Oundle Union Workhouse
Steven King is a modern British historian best known as an historian of welfare. He advocates for the poor and for welfare claimants, writing about the experiences of the sick and disabled under the British welfare system over the centuries. He writes extensively and collaboratively in this field, and his written work in these areas has been widely recognised in literary prize competitions, both here and abroad. Professor King joined Nottingham Trent University in 2020 where he is currently Co-Director of the University’s Centre for History, Heritage, and Memory Studies. Steve holds a five-year British Academy Projects Grant (jointly with Dr Paul Carter of the National Archives) to support the research and teaching of the ‘Voices of the Victorian Poor’. His wider research programme aims to reconstruct the experiences of being poor and to understand how power was held and deployed in different incarnations of our welfare state. He argues that the history of welfare matters, both for understanding the welfare dilemmas of the present, and for shaping the character and entitlement of welfare claimants in the future. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2020 The Oundle Poor Law Union (formed under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834) grouped 21 local parishes and the town of Oundle into one ‘Union’ to manage poor relief centrally, replacing individual parish support with a stricter, deterrent-focused workhouse system. The population within the Union at the time of the 1831 census was 13,517, with parishes ranging in size from Oundle (pop 2,308) to Armston (pop 25). The Oundle Union workhouse on Glapthorn Road was designed by the prominent Victorian architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott. It was built in 1836-37 to a model cruciform plan to house 150 - 170 inmates. The Poor Law Commissioners authorised expenditure of £4,400 to build it. Workhouses in the UK were formally closed in 1948, when many were repurposed into modern welfare institutions or NHS hospitals. The main Oundle workhouse block is long demolished but other buildings on the site have been repurposed for community use. The former Infirmary is now home to the Town Council and known as Fletton House (where the Historical Society meets); the former Entrance Lodge is now Oundle Library. 10th April, starting at 7.30 pm at Fletton House, off Glapthorn Road, Oundle, PE8 4JA . |
